Ed Koch documented his struggles with racist, Jew-hating soldiers as a young GI in a long-lost diary that came to light after his death earlier this month. The late ex-mayor of New York wrote of his struggles with bigotry during his Army boot camp in a diary that his sister found while cleaning out his…
Israel’s government watchdog criticised outgoing Defence Minister Ehud Barak and former armed forces chief Gabi Ashkenazi on Sunday over a relationship full of “loathing and mistrust” that had hurt the military’s hallowed national image. The findings detailed mud-slinging at the very top of Israel’s defence establishment and briefly shifted local media focus away from the…
A Swiss army commander reportedly praised Nazi-era German general Erwin Rommel before a group of officers, holding up Rommel as an example for the Swiss army to follow. According to a report in the Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag, the officer, a lieutenant colonel identified only as “PL,” defended his words as “no praise for Rommel…
(All photos: Getty Images) Stevie Wonder is set to pull out of a performance at a fundraiser for the Israel Defense Forces, a source told JTA. Wonder’s representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and that he believes such a performance would…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered Israeli defence chiefs in 2010 to prepare for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities but were rebuffed, a television report said. Excerpts released on Monday of an Israeli Channel 2 documentary said the armed forces’ chief of staff at the time, Gabi Ashkenazi, and Mossad…
On Memorial Day 2016, the Forward salutes the Americans who have died in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan — and reminds readers of the dozens of Jewish servicememebers who perished. Here is a look back at how we have covered their wrenching stories. Of the more than 6,800 Americans who have died in Iraq…
Struggling to find their bearings after a surprise move by Egypt’s new president replacing his country’s top military brass, American officials were quick to declare that Egypt’s new faces in command of the military are old friends of America. “The new defense minister is someone who’s known to us. He comes from within the ranks…
My oldest son, now 19, studies in yeshiva full time. I ask him, almost every day: “When will you do army service?” I say: “A person with an iPhone or laptop should be in the army!” This is my common refrain, one my children have heard so many times at the table on Saturday afternoons…
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